Real-time data is usually collected in communication processing centers, such as contact centers, at pre-defined intervals. The collected data is stored in a database and then used by a router when determining how a received communication request must be routed to one of multiple communication distributors.
It will be appreciated that, in systems where real-time data is conveyed only at pre-defined intervals, the validity of the collected data typically degrades between the intervals. In a system where data is collected every ten seconds, data may be considered somewhat out-of-date after 5 seconds, and may be considered completely out-of-date after 9 seconds, just before the data is updated again at 10 seconds. For example, in a contact center system where two call distributors are used, the first call distributor may have five available agents and the second call distributor may have four available agents at time t0. At the first collection interval, t0, real-time data (e.g., a number of available agents) is collected from the call distributors. If the contact center receives a contact request (e.g., a call) at t2, a router is prompted for a route decision. As the router uses the real-time data collected at t0, the first call distributor with the five available agents will be selected as the destination. When this call arrives at the first call distributor, it is assigned to an agent leaving only four available agents. However, the stored real-time data still indicates that five agents are available. It will be appreciated that routing based on this data would result in all calls being sent to the first call distributor for the entire interval between collections.
One of the possible solutions identified to increase the validity of the data is to decrease the time interval for collecting real-time data. However, as available bandwidth creates limitations for the application of this solution, the solution has proved to be less than satisfactory. In some cases, it has been impossible to decrease the time interval sufficiently thereby to accommodate the required rate of change of data. For example, it is not unusual to have bursts of ten to fifteen calls per second in a contact center domain. To accurately convey information relating to these calls, the collection interval would need to be no more than 100 milliseconds. However, it would be extremely difficult to accommodate this timing requirement in a typical Wide Area Network (WAN).